# aylp - amazon s3 · of social platforms. she founded several bottom-up organizations focused on...

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 1USTROŃ - POLAND

2019 II.

Aspen Young Leaders Program

# aylp

DEAR PARTICIPANT,Welcome to the Aspen Young Leaders Program 2019 II. Thank you for joining us for four days of talks, lectures, workshops and informal activities that we hope will stimulate, provoke and inspire you.

Taking place in the remote reaches of the Beskid Mountains, the program is consistent with the basic Aspen idea to step away from daily routine and reflect on various aspects of leadership and underlying societal values. Its uniqueness is defined by a strong emphasis on quality and diversity of speakers, broad array of topics and open conversations. In this way the Program creates a setting conducive to sharing ideas, learning and networking.

We have invited outstanding professionals from Central Europe, who will debate the role of leaders and issues critical for the region’s development. A balanced mix of personalities, coming from

business, politics, arts, academia and non-profit sector, will surely guarantee provocative perspectives, and trigger further cooperation among those who take part in the Program.

Therefore we invite you to actively engage throughout the whole Program, including its informal parts as they cement the participants network. We truly hope the agenda we have prepared will surpass your expectations and – when it’s time to leave, you venture home with new friends, a rejuvenated mind and lots of new ideas.

After completing the Program, you are becoming part of the Aspen Institute Alumni network and you are welcome to stay involved in development of the Institute’s future activities.

THE ASPEN INSTITUTE CENTRAL EUROPE

4 5Aspen Young Leaders Program 2019 II.Aspen Young Leaders Program 2019 II.

Program15:00 - 18:30 Arrivals

(Hotel Belweder)

17:30 - 19:00 Dinner(Restaurant)

19:00 - 19:30 Welcome Address and Introduction

Jiří Schneider Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Central Europe(Conference Room A)

19:30 - 20:30 Getting to Know Each Other

Pepper de CallierFounder and Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Aspen Institute Central Europe Pavel ŘehákVice President of the Aspen Institute Central Europe, CEO at Vigo Investments(Conference Room A)

20:30 Informal Debate and Networking

Ivan HodáčPresident and Founder of the Aspen Institute Central Europe

Topic: "Current Geopolitical Challenges"(Lesna Chata/ Grill Hut)

8:00 - 9:00 Breakfast(Restaurant)

9:00 - 10:30 Jan Olbrycht (PL)Member of the European Parliament

„EU after Brexit – The Possible Consequences”(Conference Room A)

10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:30 Branislav Kleskeň (SK)Director at LEAF

“Shaping the Future of Education”(Conference Room A)

12:30 - 12:45 Family Photo

12:45 - 14:00 Lunch(Restaurant)

14:00 - 17:00 Interactive Workshop - Institute EuroSchola

“Leadership - My Perspectives”(Outdoors)

17:00 - 18:00 Free Time

18:00 - 20:00 When the War ComesDocumentary Movie Screening Followed by Discussion “Why is Extremism Appealing to Decent People?” with its Director Jan Gebert (CZ), Journalist and Film-Maker.(Conference Room A)

20:00 - 21:00 Dinner (Restaurant)

21:00 - 24:00 Informal Networking - Pub Quiz(Lesna Chata/ Grill Hut)

Thursday 29th August Friday 30th August


8:00 - 9:00 Breakfast(Restaurant)

9:00 - 10:30 Kateřina Vacková (CZ)Founder and CEO of Loono

“Raising a New Generation of Doctors”+ Practical Prevention Workshop(Conference Room A)

10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:30 Leon Ciechanowski (PL) Kozminski University Warsaw

“Human-Machine Interaction Today”(Conference Room B)

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch (Lesna Chata/ Grill Hut)

13:30 - 15:15 Free Time

15:15 - 15:30 Coffee Break(Conference Room B)

15:30 - 17:00 Participant Workshops 5 Groups of Participant´s ProjectsDiscussions and Recommendations(Conference Room B)

17:15 - 18:45 Ruth Krčmářová (CZ) Expert on International Migration, Migrant Protection and Assistance

“Migration, Development and Governance - Myths and Realities in Europe and Beyond”(Conference Room B)

19:00 - 21:30 Barbecue Dinner(Lesna Chata/ Grill Hut)

22:00 - 03:00 Informal Networking(Music Club)

8:00 - 9:00 Breakfast (Restaurant)

9:00 - 9:30 Check Out (until 12:00)

9:30 - 11:00 Balazs Vinnai (HU)President of W.UP

“Fintech Disruption and the Future of Banking”(Conference Room A)

11:00 - 12:30 Final Evaluation and Program Outcomes(Conference Room A)

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch and Departure(Restaurant)

Sunday 1st September Saturday 31st August


LEON CIECHANOWSKI is a Cognitive Scientist, Philosopher, Culture Science expert, currently working at Kozmin-ski University and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities SWPS (Psychology Department) in Warsaw. He is a graduate of Philosophy Studies in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Warsaw, and Intercolle-giate Studies at the "Artes Liberales" Academy. Leon is working in the do-main of Human-Computer Interaction, Phenomenology, and sense of agency/control. He is currently completing his PhD in Psychology at the SWPS University and is involved in the study of chatbots, robots and wearables in cooperation with MIT. He is also a consultant for various business sectors (banking, data analytics, telecom-munication). In his spare time, Leon loves to popularize (Neuro)Science as a member of the "Brain!" Foundation.

JAN GEBERT graduated in History and Latin American studies at Charles University in Prague. He also studied in Spain, USA and Mexico. He works as a journalist and film-maker. His film debut Stone Games (2012) premiered at the Jihlava IDFF and received the Special Jury Prize. His first feature film When the War Comes was pre-miered at Berlinale 2018 as the opening film of the section Panorama Doku-mente and won major awards at many international festivals, also winning the Czech Film-Critics Award for the best Czech documentary 2018.

BRANISLAV KLESKEŇ leads LEAF, a non-profit organization focusing on the development of young individuals with the potential to grow into shap-ers of Slovakia who will demonstrate moral character, excellence, entrepre-neurial leadership and civic engage-ment; regardless of their socio-eco-nomic background. The activities of LEAF serve individuals from about 15 to 35 years of age and cover the areas of world-class education for high school students, mitigation of ‘brain drain’ and development of young profession-als. Formerly a partner at McKinsey & Company, Braňo has experience from several continents in improving corporate performance, building new businesses and improving educa-tion. He holds an MBA degree from Kellogg Graduate School of Manage-ment, Northwestern University.

RUTH KRČMÁŘOVÁ is an expert on migration, human trafficking and the protection and assistance ofvulnerable migrants and internally displaced persons. She graduated in sociology and development studies/Eastern European studies from the University of Vienna and holds an MBA from the European University Viadrina. She has worked for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) since 2006 and was deployed among other places to Georgia, Ukraine and Mozam-bique. She has recently returned from Mozambique, where she supported the humanitarian response following the tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth. Be-fore joining IOM, she worked in event management and migration research. When she is not working, Ruth dances Argentinian tango, travels and reads.

Speakers


JAN OLBRYCHT has a PhD in Sociolo-gy and works as a lecturer, expert and politician. He is the former mayor and president of one of the Polish regions and active in many European local and regional government organiza-tions. He is a regional policy and urban development expert. He has been a speaker at international conferences on urban related issues. Jan is a mem-ber of the European Parliament since 2004, Vice-Chairman of its Commit-tee on Regional Development in the years 2004-2009. He has served as president of the European Parliament's URBAN Intergroup from 2014-2019.He is currently a member of the Par-liamentary Committee on Budgets (standing rapporteur on the Multiannu-al Financial Framework) and substitute member of the Regional Development Committee. He is co-chair of the Euro-pean People’s Party working group on intercultural and religious dialogue.

KATEŘINA VACKOVÁ graduated from the First Faculty of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. She found-ed a non-profit organization Loono with the mission of motivating people to think about their health following her own experience with cancer. With her team of med school students and young doctors, they run campaigns and workshops in schools, compa-nies and festivals in order to spread awareness about breast and testicular cancer as well as other diseases. With more than 50,000 people trained, tens have already identified cancer at the early stage. Kateřina moved from the CEO position to the ambassador and is currently looking for new challenges. Kateřina has won the Social Innovation Prize and was endorsed in the 30 Under 30 list by Forbes Magazine. She loves surfing, coffee and Vietnamese cuisine.

BALÁZS VINNAI is a Hungarian entre-preneur, investor and mentor for growth stage companies. He is an experienced and awarded leader with a demonstrat-ed history of working in the Digital Banking industry. He is a strong entre-preneurship professional skilled in Dig-ital Transformation, Retail Banking, Fi-nancial Software Business and EdTech. He is the founder and president of Code-cool, one of the leading coding schools, and also president of W.UP., the go-to digital sales company for banks in Eu-rope with a team of 100+ highly skilled fintech specialists. He is Vice President of the Committee of Software Develop-ment and Innovation in the Association of IT Companies (IVSZ). He established the company tokaj.hu, which operates the working portal of Tokaj, which is also functioning as a web shop at present.


VIVIEN BRASSÓI graduated from the Faculty of Law at ELTE in Budapest. She is currently finishing her LLM in Human Rights at Central European University. She has acquired a strong foundation in the field of international human rights, which she has strength-ened through participation in programs such as the Roma Graduate Prepara-tion Program, also at Central European University. She completed a fellowship related to community organizing in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 2017 as a Professional Fellow with the Legis-lative Fellows Program - Sustaining Civic Participation in Minority Com-munities. Prior to joining the Europe-an Roma Rights Centre as a lawyer, Vivien worked at the Romaversitas Foundation, the Autonómia Founda-tion and the Open Society Foundations.

HUBERT CZYŻEWSKI is a historian of philosophy. After completing his studies in history at King’s College London, he pursued a doctorate at Ox-ford University. His area of research is focused on relations between religion, politics and philosophy in modern times, post-secularization theories and modern Christian thought. He has written a book about the Polish philos-opher Leszek Kołakowski and edited a collection of Kołakowski’s essays on Christianity, which will be published in Polish later this year by Znak Publish-ing House. He has taught history of political thought at Oxford University and University College London. Since 2013, he is an editor and author at the online magazine ‘Kultura Liberalna’.

ESZTER DÁVIDA is an architect and project manager, who graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Ecomomics in 2016. Apart from ar-chitecture, her areas of interest are ac-tivism, community building and meth-odology research related to the creation of social platforms. She founded several bottom-up organizations focused on education about contemporary archi-tecture, urban and design questions; she has 12 years of experience in this field. She joined the Hungarian Con-temporary Architecture Center in 2007 as a volunteer and is currently leading the Pecha Kucha Night Budapest and the DANUrB (Interreg - Danube Urban Brand) program, where she focuses on fostering local communities to partic-ipate in urban issues on a regional and international scale. She also works as an architect on urban planning projects.

FILIP DRNEC graduated from the Fac-ulty of Law in Pilsen, West Bohemia, where he graduated from the local Faculty of Law. During his studies, he worked as the President of the Euro-pean Law Students' Association Czech Republic. Filip had an internship at ACCESS EU! in Brussels, where he, along with legal-economic matters, co-worked on a publication on lobbying in the European Union. As the Director, Filip manages CCS law firm's financial and administrative department, client relationships and business develop-ment, HR policy, compliance program, performance analytics and long-term strategic planning. Filip is the co-author of the largest Encyclopaedia of Czech legal history; he also publishes in man-agement and scientific periodicals. Filip speaks Czech, English and German.

Participants


DORIÁN ELEK is a Hungarian political analyst and the founder and director of the Paradigm Institute (Paradigma Intézet). The Paradigm Institute is a non-partisan think-tank and policy re-search institute established in Septem-ber of 2017. The Institute is founded on the idea that civic education and political engagement of young Hungar-ians are the most crucial aspect of the country’s transition from the past three decades of a post-socialist state towards a truly free and prosperous society. The Institute is focused on efficiently communicating ideas to young Hun-garians and providing a fair analysis and commentary on political develop-ments. Apart from Paradigm Insti-tute, he is the Program Associate of the Common Sense Society in Hungary.

TEREZA GONDKOVÁ is the co-found-er and CEO of Ollies pastry shops. Her main focus is on quality in the produc-tion of all the delicious sweet products Ollies makes. In addition, she devel-ops the brand marketing strategy and works on the future business plan of the company. She has completed a range of prestigious pastry courses, one of them being the Cordon Bleu, the most fa-mous pastry school in Paris. Her vision is to produce quality food products in a responsible company to its employees and the environment. She is an outrider of kindness and believes that achieving your goals is always possible without harm. To abide by this statement she does lots of yoga, running, healthy eat-ing, reading and mindfulness practice.

SMILEN HADZHIKOSTOV is passionate about tech startups and has helped the growth of several companies. He is a founding member and Head of Growth at XOM Materials – an e-commerce marketplace for industrial materials. He previously worked at the digital hub and VC fund of Klöckner and Co. He was one of the first employees of Wunderflats – a platform for apartment rentals and had a business development role in HeavenHR, a SaaS company for HR. He holds a master's degree in Man-agement from HEC Paris, a master's degree in Public Policy and a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin. He co-found-ed the NGO Hashove to provide help for Bulgarian students in Germany, and contributed to the development of the United Ideas for Bulgaria – an NGO, that triggers social changes in Bulgaria.

PATRIK JURÁNEK is Managing Di-rector for the Czech Republic in the startup community Startup Grind which is responsible for running Czech chapters (Prague, Brno). He is also an external consultant for global tech-nology, e-commerce companies and a founding member of LXVI Ventures and other companies. Patrik previ-ously worked for large consulting, technology corporations, startups and successfully exited from his own ventures. Patrik co-founded Startup Grind Prague in 2016, part of the larg-est community platform for entrepre-neurs in the world and built a com-munity of 1800+ members in Prague, Brno and other cities which will follow. He is also a proud member of Rota-ract Club Prague where he takes part in national and international service projects, which help communities and young leaders around the world.


BARBORA KOŠNAROVÁ is an entre-preneur, relationship builder, explorer and a facilitator on a mission to help people connect. She works with top teams and leaders empowering them to create a culture of high impact col-laboration. She worked for the oldest conflict resolution center in Northern Ireland, bringing fractured communi-ties together. Apart from being a Global Tech Advocate, volunteering for Hes-tia and running her company, Barbo-ra works with Traverse, helping them navigate complexity and controversy in the changing world. She believes that in order to solve the complex challenges we face today we first need to connect as people. She founded her company, DOtsMORE, to bring people together and empower them to embrace dif-ferences, be kind more and together bring more goodness into the world.

BARTLOMIEJ KOT is Program Coor-dinator of Warsaw Security Forum – a leading conference in CEE devoted to international security, military affairs and transatlantic cooperation. An ac-tive member of the think tank commu-nity, he maintains cooperation with the WSF’s external partners: internation-al think tanks, embassies and minis-tries. Trained as a lawyer at Jagiello-nian University in Cracow, where he also served as the Vice President of the Law School Student Government, he later continued his studies in the area of economic diplomacy at the Warsaw School of Economics and policy-mak-ing at European University Institute in Florence. As part of the Pulaski Foun-dation team, Bartlomiej established his research interests in both trans-atlantic and British affairs and their implications for European security.

MICHAL KRČMÉRY obtained his MSc. degree in International Relations from the University of Economics in Bra-tislava after his studies at Université Paul Cezanne (France), Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) and University of Iceland. He also studied Moral & Polit-ical Philosophy and Christian Culture at Collegium of Anton Neuwirth. In 2010-11, Michal worked as a develop-ment aid coordinator in Burundi and Haiti. His professional experience also includes the US Congress and the Slovak Investment & Trade Develop-ment Agency. He currently works as the Director of Government Affairs & Spokesperson at the American Cham-ber of Commerce in Slovakia, leading AmCham’s efforts in improving rule of law in Slovakia. Michal, a life-long Man United fan, is happily married to his wife Lucia and they have 3 children.

LUKÁŠ MACH is a physician and a clin-ical scientist in cardiology. He gradu-ated from Masaryk University, Brno, having received the Rector’s Award for Outstanding Students. As a medical student, his passion for cardiology and clinical investigation led him to the Mayo Clinic, USA, where he worked in cardiovascular research. After gradu-ation, he completed his core training as a physician in University Hospital Southampton, UK and was elected to the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians. He is set to continue his research and clinical pursuits as a Cardiology Academic Clinical Fellow at Imperial College London. Lukáš has published his work in a variety of inter-national journals. Apart from medicine, he is interested in architecture and art.


LENA MARCINOSKA is a specialist in intellectual property law. She handles IP law and unfair competition litiga-tions, as well as domain name disputes. In the court room she is like a kid in a candy shop. She advises on IP issues in all sectors of business. She believes that start-ups are the future and always tries to support them from the IP perspec-tive. Lena is a lawyer in the Warsaw Bar Association, and also studied New Technologies Law at the Polish Acad-emy of Science. She loves to examine how the IP law deals with cybersecuri-ty, blockchain, AI, augmented reali-ty and other new phenomena. She is a lawyer in Wardynski&Partners, one of the largest Polish law firms. Lena likes cycling and trying weird food.

NELA MAŤAŠEJE is a brand manag-er, spokesperson, internal communi-cator in an insurance company, but in fact, a storyteller who wants to tell everything important about her life and about her job. She thinks that stories are a way in which we can explain our thoughts, intentions, our "why". She loves stories from her childhood. She wrote a book when she was 16 years old. And her journey led to storytell-ing in her professional life as well. She was an editor and editor in chief in many magazines, daily newspapers, etc. And when "a switch" came after 13 years at the newspaper, she could not give up telling stories. So, here she is. A woman who can speak extremely fast (in Czech :) and really often, likes people and their different stories.

KLAUDYNA MILEWSKA is deputy di-rector of the American Center Warsaw. ACW is U.S. Mission Poland’s priority American Space for Public Affairs out-reach, through programs related to the strategic objectives of the U.S. govern-ment in the CEE region and the hub of the Mission’s hub-and-spoke American Spaces Network. The American Center Warsaw supports U.S. public outreach in Poland by creating policy related programs on security cooperation, en-ergy security, innovation, and entre-preneurship. ACW was selected by the U.S. Department of State as one of 11 priority spaces in Europe. She studied Cultural Management and Internation-al Economics. She gained her previous professional experience at Grayling in the Public Affairs department, cooper-ating with companies dealing with new technologies, innovations and energy.

LUCIE NEUMANOVÁ is the CEO and co-founder of Femme Palette, a plat-form that helps women advance their careers by connecting them with like-minded women and offering men-torship and educational resources. In a year, over 1,300 women of different backgrounds and nationalities have joined the platform to receive ca-reer guidance via mentorship, make new connections in business and find inspiration. Lucie is a designer and marketer at heart: she has lived in San Francisco for 5 years, and has worked in a variety of marketing and design roles for tech startups in the Silicon Valley. Her expertise is in UX/UI de-sign, branding, content, and social media marketing. She enjoys work-ing for mission-driven companies that have a direct impact on the world.


ANNA NGUYENOVÁ is an actress and entrepreneur. She built two start-ups from scratch - once as a founder of Comic Con in Vietnam and once as employee number 7 of a Los Angeles video company. She is currently lead-ing growth at a London based adtech startup. Her expertise is in scaling and operations in media, production and targeted advertising startups. She was the first Asian actress to appear on Czech Television and has since filmed over 100 episodes. Her latest appear-ance is in Sever, a crime TV series set to air on Czech TV in the Fall 2019. She holds a B.S. in Business Administra-tion from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She speaks on the issues of diversity, startup scaling and data/privacy issues. She occasionally writes for US Forbes.

ŁUKASZ PAWŁOWSKI is a psychologist and sociologist by education, holding a PhD in social sciences. He complet-ed his dissertation on contemporary theories of democracy in 2014. He had earlier academic stays at Indiana University (USA) and the University of Oxford (UK). Łukasz started working as a journalist in 2008. He is now the chief of the political section at Kultu-ra Liberalna – a leading Polish liber-al magazine – where he writes mainly on Polish and American politics. He is the author of numerous interviews on these subjects with, among oth-ers, Anne Applebaum, Martin Wolf and Fareed Zakaria, as well as Polish top politicians including former prime ministers and presidents. His articles have appeared in Polish and foreign media including: "Gazeta Wyborcza", "Onet", and "Financial Times". Follow Łukasz on Twitter: @lukpawlowski

ANDREA PROCHÁZKOVÁ is a Czech journalist, currently working at Res-pekt. She is focused on Czech politics, justice and the European Union. Her role primarily consists in reporting and analyzing current events. She is the founder of “Názorování” which is a non-profit project arranging dis-cussions for young people about the political situation and other impor-tant topics such as climate change, fake news or education. She is cur-rently studying a master's degree in law at Charles University in Prague. In 2019, Andrea received the prize called “Novinářská křepelka” from the Czech Literary Fund for young journalists under 33 for “extraordinary range of knowledge, precision and ability to go to the essence of things”.

JITKA PŠEJOVÁ is an entrepreneur and business superconnector. She has more than seven years of experience in business development, sales and team leadership at an international level. Her genuine curiosity about people, tech-nology and the future has brought her to cutting-edge projects with real-world impact. She helped with launching Artstaq, the world's most innovative art market utilizing AI for global art trading, mentoring a women's startup competition in Prague or helping or-ganize Future Port Prague, the largest futuristic event in Central Europe. Jitka purposely does not do networking, but prefers investing her time into con-necting interesting people, building meaningful business relationships and the personal brands of others.


ZSÓFIA RÉVAY is a data-driven inter-national relations specialist. Working for the Open Society Foundations for over nine years, she served the last four years as the senior reporting specialist of the European initiative (OSIFE), de-veloping management reports, leading budget planning processes and partic-ipating in data and analytics projects. Previously an administrative coor-dinator, she worked with think tanks in the CEE, Western Balkans and the South Caucasus regions, as well as with NGOs and humanitarian organizations in Greece. Zsófia holds a BA in Inter-national Relations, an MA in English Literature and Philology, and recently completed a certificate course in Data Science. She speaks English, Spanish and Hungarian and started studying German now that she resides in Vienna.

ELIŠKA SELINGER is a medical student and researcher at the Center for the Research of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (3rd Faculty of Medi-cine) and 2nd Department of Internal Medicine (Faculty Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady). She is a founding mem-ber of the VESNA network, a European network focused on plant-based diet research. She has research experience in immunology, epigenetics and nu-tritional epidemiology gained in the Czech Republic and abroad (Univer-sita Magna Greacia Catanzaro, EMBL Heidelberg, DKFZ Heidelberg, The University of Tromsø - The Arctic Uni-versity of Norway). Eliška is the overall winner of the Czech national FameLab competition in 2016. She is active in science communication in the Czech Republic and abroad, cooperating with many academic and public institu-tions as well as with the private sector.

HELENA STRAKOVÁ Despite the fact that Helena has studied technical sci-ence (her major was geodetic astron-omy and cosmic geodesy), she has been working most of her career in the telecommunication industry. She started as a business data analyst in marketing for Orange and continued as a head of pricing and customer val-ue management. After her maternity leave, she changed industries: she was attracted by banking and worked as head of direct marketing in a small lo-cal bank. After 18 months she decided, however, that telco would still remain her main passion and changed back to head of segment in Slovak Telekom. The segment she manages has changed several times and at the moment she works as head of the fixed and FMC segment leading a group of 8 people.

DAVID ŠIŠKA David’s values are free-dom (physically & mentally), growth, purpose, and fairness. He learned a lot from working 3 years in non-prof-it organization AIESEC Brno during university studies. Further from build-ing his startup Universator in Starcube accelerator which didn’t take off. After studies, David joined investment group Miton in Prague. He helped to build Bonami.cz for almost 6 years, last 3 years as CEO, where he led 150 people, operated in 5 countries and had 1bln CZK in revenue in 2018. He had experi-ence with a brain tumour (successfully) and got married (successfully) which formed him a lot. He was also chosen as Forbes Czech 30under30 in 2017 which didn't form him at all :-) He is now look-ing for new opportunities to support (invest, start on his own or mentor).


ROBIN ŠVAŘÍČEK has a finance back-ground, which he is using for many years now in the public and individu-al transportation industry. He stud-ied finance and accounting at the University of Economics in Prague. During his studies there, he joined Leo Express (LE), back than solely a rail transportation company. Quick-ly after joining LE, he became CFO of LE and helped transform it into a multimodal, technologically orient-ed transportation company operating in many European countries. Rob-in is currently COO of LE. Alongside his public transportation role, he also co-founded a peer to peer car sharing company called SmileCar, which lat-er created a JV with a similar startup by Škoda Auto. In his personal life, he loves all kind of sports (ice-hock-ey, all racket sports and biking).

RADIM TKADLEC is a design team leader in the London-based modu-lar housing company TopHat, which creates homes off-site in a dedicat-ed manufacturing facility. He is re-sponsible for delivering a coherently developed design which is beautiful, buildable and economical. His team aims to provide quality housing that form a bedrock for thriving commu-nities from all walks of life. A curi-ous observer and relentless improver of the world, Radim has always been fascinated by his surroundings, both natural and man-made, noticing that the two are not always in symbiosis. It has always been clear to him that nature must ultimately prevail, and as an architect he feels responsible for ensuring a harmonious interaction be-tween the planet and what we put on it.

ALESSANDRO TOFANI has 9 years of experience as a manager in Digital Strategy, Commercial Transforma-tion and M&A, with a profile gained through participation in projects across Italy, UK, France and Poland. His profile is completed by a triple degree BA program from the University of Turin, ESCP Europe and London City University. After five years of experi-ence in financial consulting in PwC, Alessandro shifted his career to the industrial sector and joined Lafarge, where he leads strategy and digitali-zation of internal processes. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Global Shaper Warsaw Hub from the World Economic Forum involved in the de-velopment of the local community. He is interested in leadership, people development and is a sports lover. He enjoys creating measurable impact in all the activities he is involved in.

DO THU TRANG studied Czech-Ger-man Studies in Prague and Regens-burg, and also graduated from Mar-keting Communications and PR at Charles University. Her career began in marketing agencies, while later gaining experience working in IT companies such as IBM Czech Republic. She has been part of the TEDxPrague organiza-tion and currently works as Communi-cations Manager for a startup Spaceti. She has been writing her blog ASIJAT-KA.cz about the Vietnamese diaspora in the Czech Republic since 2008 and was nominated for Křišťálová Lupa 2016 and Magnesia Litera in the cate-gory Blog of the Year. In that same year, she received an award for journalists under 33 years of age and was listed on Forbes Czech 30under30. She also co-wrote and hosted an online show called “Foreigners in the Czech Republic”.


MIRKA UHNAK is the CEO of Mini Tech MBA. It is an education con-sulting company that provides an IT training program designed specifically for women. At Mini Tech MBA, Mirka empowers participants to level up in their professional and personal lives. For her passion and results in educa-tion, she was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 Slovakia 2019. She previously led community and education projects in the private and non-profit sectors. Her main focus was on the social integra-tion of children from foster homes and providing support for women in need. Mirka earlier held various roles at KPMG. Mirka graduated from Come-nius University in Bratislava with a degree in Strategic Management. She continues her studies as a PhD. candi-date and her doctoral research focuses on innovation and intrapreneurship.

JOZEF VODIČKA loves LEGO Tech-nic & this planet! Who is Jozef? Right now he is a passionate Googler helping developers, developer agencies and startups in South CEE be more success-ful and profitable. He co-founded and led several StartUPs such as Venzeo.com, TrashOut.NGO, Matura.sk and Stuzkova.EU. He is a TEDx speaker, Slovak Forbes 30-under-30, IT Auditor in AIESEC International & TOP 5 Stu-dent Entrepreneurs in Slovakia. He gets things done. From idea to 70 countries. He focuses on developing the leader-ship of all members, keeping a constant feedback loop and engagement of tasks. He loves to solve complex problems, push limits, smile, meditate, do fitness, read and enjoy family and friends.

JAN VOHRYZEK is helping CEE com-panies find global success with a focus on e-commerce and tech in his current role as an Industry Manager for Start-ups, Export & Innovation at Google. He joined Google in 2012 as a consult-ant in Google's EMEA headquarters in Dublin. Prior to moving to Ireland, he graduated with a degree in Poli-tics and International Relations from the University of York. Thanks to a scholarship by the Open Society Fund, Jan also completed two years of high school education leading to A-level exams at Strathallan School in Scot-land. In his 20% role, he helps Czech and Slovak non-profits make the most out of digital technology. Jan is a proud father of a one-year-old daughter and passionate about downhill cycling.

OLGA BUREŠ VRBÍKOVÁ has been working in the design and fashion in-dustry for over ten years. Her experi-ence started in design galleries at The Brno House of Arts and DOX Center of Contemporary Art in Prague by organizing a number of events and co-operating with designers and artists. With her husband, she temporarily took care of the fine art photography tradition within Photofestival Moravs-ka Trebova. In 2014, she established ARTSPEAK focused on providing com-munications for studios, brands and concepts with international potential. Her activities helped establish inter-national relations for brands such as LAFORMELA, Bohempia or PRECIO-SA Lighting. Since London became her second home, ARTSPEAK has turned into an art agency as well. Olga’s goal is to cultivate the environment for cre-ative professions and its perception.


ONDŘEJ WÁGNER is a Czech career diplomat and works as a human rights officer at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Beijing. His key respon-sibilities include providing expertise to the Czech Government on China’s human rights situation and domes-tic affairs. Ondřej is a graduate of the Diplomatic Academy of the Minis-try of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, holding a master's degree from the Graduate Institute of Inter-national and Development Studies in Geneva. Ondřej has previous work experience from the United Nations and cooperated with the European Council on Foreign Relations. He is co-founder of the Prague-based stu-dent organization Junior Diplomat Initiative and its sister organization in Switzerland. He loves house music and exploring remote places in Asia.


IVAN HODÁČPresident and FounderThe Aspen Institute Central Europe

Ivan was Secretary-General of the Euro-pean Automobile Manufacturers’ Asso-ciation (ACEA) from 2001 until 2013. He was among other a member of a special Advisory Group of experts, which was advising the European Commission in negotiation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the United States (TTIP), and an advisor to the Czech Government on European is-sues. He is also a Senior advisor at Teneo CabinetDN. The Financial Times listed him among the most influential person-alities in Brussels politics. Before joining ACEA, he was Senior Vice-President and Head of the Time Warner Corpo-rate office for Europe. Previously he was Secretary-General of the trade organiza-tion IFMA/IMACE, Senior Economist at Didier & Associates, and Assistant Professor at the College of Europe, Bru-ges. He completed his education in eco-nomics and political science at the Uni-versity of Copenhagen and the College of Europe in Bruges (European studies).

@IvanHodac

PAVEL ŘEHÁKVice PresidentThe Aspen Institute Central Europe

Pavel graduated from the University of Economics in Prague with a degree in international trade and received an MBA at Northwestern University. He has been active in the business sphere for more than 20 years. In 1999 he joined McKinsey & Company where he specialized in banking, insurance, and consumer goods in the EU and the US. He held the position of Marketing and Sales Practice Leader in the com-pany’s Prague Office. Between 2006 and 2013 he was part of the top man-agement of Česká pojištovna. Under his leadership, the company achieved a significant increase in customer satisfaction, sales acceleration, and profitability turnaround. In 2013 he co-founded VIGO Investments where he serves as a CEO and Partner. He is also a member of the Board of Direc-tors of Aspen Institute Central Europe.

@rehak_pavel

PEPPER DE CALLIER Chair of Supervisory Board & FounderThe Aspen Institute Central Europe

Pepper is a bestselling author of three books on leadership and personal devel-opment, a newspaper columnist, sen-ior-executive coach, and Founder and Executive Director of Prague Leader-ship Institute. He was voted Top Corpo-rate Leadership Coach in Europe—2015 by the London-based AI Media. Pepper has devoted his career to understand-ing, counseling, and coaching leaders globally. He assisted in the design and launch of, as well as being a mentor in, the Odyssey Program for the Vodafone Foundation, a mentoring program for women executives. Pepper also assisted in the formation of Manageria, a Slo-vak NGO, focused on the development of ethical, holistic business leaders.

ENDRE ASCSILLÁNBoard MemberThe Aspen Institute Central Europe

Endre has been the Vice President of GE Hungary and Director of Strate-gic & Government Affairs in the CEE region since 2013. Endre studied Law at Pázmány Péter Catholic Universi-ty, Budapest where he specialized in European and national state subsidies and taxation systems. He has more than 14 years of experience in govern-ment relations, public procurement, EU funding and support, commercial law issues and economic recovery pro-grams. He has more than 10 years of experience in healthcare-specialized regional funding. Prior to his current position, Endre was EU & State Aid Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hungary. Endre is a master teacher and the initiator of the University of Debrecen's Institute of Innovation, En-gineering and Business Development.

Guests


MAREK PROCHÁZKA Board MemberThe Aspen Institute Central Europe

Marek is the founding partner at PRK Partners, attorneys at law. Admitted as attorney-at-law in Switzerland and the Czech Republic, he has been practis-ing in both countries. He specializes in the areas of dispute resolution, white collar crime, general corporate law and banking law. He is the President of the Chamber of Commerce Swit-zerland – Czech Republic, while also being a member of the ICC Arbitration Commission and the ICC Czech Re-public. Before founding PRK Partners, Marek Procházka worked as Associ-ate at White & Case LLP and Research Assistant at the University of Bern Law School in Switzerland. He graduated from the University of Bern and earned his LL.M. degree from the George-town University in Washington, D.C.

TOMASZ WARDYŃSKIBoard MemberThe Aspen Institute Central Europe

Tomasz is a lawyer and founding partner of Wardyński & Partners. He practices civil, commercial and com-petition law, but is mainly focused on arbitrations involving foreign and domestic entities. Tomasz is a gradu-ate of the Faculty of Law and Admin-istration at the University of Warsaw, College of Europe and the Institute of European Studies at the University of Strasbourg. He is the honorary le-gal adviser to Her Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador in Poland and in 2001 he was appointed Honorary Command-er of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. He served as a member of the ICC In-ternational Court of Arbitration. He is currently a member of the board of trustees of the Academy of Euro-pean Law in Trier and the Board of Directors of the Aspen Institute CE.


JIŘÍ SCHNEIDERExecutive Director

Jiří is Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Central Europe. He graduated from Czech Technical University and obtained a Diploma in Religious Studies from University of Cambridge. He was elected to the Czechoslovak Parliament in 1990 and 1992. In 1993 he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held various positions at the Czech diplomat-ic service. Most prominently he served as ambassador to Israel and as the first deputy foreign minister of the Czech Republic. He also lectured at various universities in the Czech Republic. He was closely associated with the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), a leading Czech security think tank.

[email protected] @JiriSchneider

DANA BASCHOVÁ Deputy Executive Director

Dana served for more than ten years at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, most recently as Deputy Head of Mission to Austria (2014-2017), and as Deputy Head of Mission to Isra-el (2010-2013). She focused mainly on security policy and transatlantic relations, Central and Eastern Eu-rope, and Visegrad Group cooperation. Furthermore, during her postings in Austria and Israel she developed and managed projects and cooperation in topics such as security, but also science, technology and innovation. Previous-ly, she worked with People in Need Organization (2004-2005), one of the most influential NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe. She headed the Cu-ban Department of its Human Rights Section. Between 1998 and 2006, she was a member of various OSCE Election or EU Monitoring Missions to the Balkans and Latin America. Dana Baschová graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences (Charles University Prague) with a master’s degree in International Area Stud-ies/German and Austrian Studies.

[email protected] @DanaBaschova

MARTINA NÁDVORNÍKOVÁProgram Manager

Martina has joined Aspen Institute as a program manager for Aspen Young Leaders Program & Alumni network. She has professional experience from corporate as well as non-profit organi-sations, mainly in project management and administration. She was Project Coordinator with focus on sustainabil-ity in Danish NGO Crossing Borders, Assistant in Czech organisation Bez-obalu which is focused on sustainable consumption, and Program Assistant for European Year of Development 2015 in Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague (CULS). Previously, she also cooperated with Language School Jip-ka, BDO and A.T.Kearney. She holds an MSc. Degree in Sustainable Rural Development from CULS, and studied two semesters at Wageningen Uni-versity (the Netherlands). She is an active volunteer and future farmer.

+420 727 821 941Martina.Nadvornikova@ AspenInstituteCE.org

KATEŘINA POLANSKÁProgram Manager

Kateřina works at the Aspen Institute Central Europe as a Program Manag-er. She is responsible for the program implementation and other organiza-tional and logistical tasks related to the Institute’s programs.Previously, she worked at a reconciliation organiza-tion in Northern Ireland, facilitating and organizing international programs focused on conflict resolution. In the Czech Republic, she gained experience in the education sector as a facilitator and instructor as well as an intern at the Gender Equality Unit of the Govern-ment of the Czech Republic. Kateřina trained as a mediator and is interested in learning and development with a fo-cus on conflict resolution, experiential learning and gender issues. She studied English, International Relations, Eu-ropean Studies and Economics in the Czech Republic, the USA and France.

[email protected]

Team


ONDŘEJ BESPERÁTPhotographer

Ondřej has worked as a reporter for Hospodářské noviny daily newspa-per, online news Aktuálně.cz and the regional project Naše adresa. He has been freelance since 2011. He works with, amongst others, Forum 2000 and the Aspen Institute Central Europe. He studied photography at Ithaca College in the USA. Ondřej likes to travel, drive busses and used to dance on stage in musicals. At the moment, he enjoys raising his two sons, Tonda and Franta.

ZUZANA KROUPOVÁPR & Communication Manager

Zuzana joined the Aspen Insti-tute Central Europe in January 2018 as a Communication Manager.Before that she had worked for the Newton Media as a Media Analyst for almost 15 years. She had been perform-ing analyses for clients from business, telecommunication, banking, auto-motive, policy and non-profit sectors.Zuzana graduated from the Fac-ulty of Humanities at the Charles University in Prague.

[email protected]

LUKÁŠ LUKAČOVIČ Program Manager

Lukáš is mainly responsible for coor-dination of expert groups and organ-ization of run-up events to the As-pen Institute’s Annual Conference. Previously, he worked at the Prague Security Studies Institute as an IRSEC Hub Manager. He has gained experi-ence in development cooperation at the European Commission and the Czech Development Agency. He was also involved in the Regional Academy on the United Nations (RAUN), a mobile interdisciplinary academy, and assist-ed in preparations for the GLOBSEC conference in 2016. During his studies, he was active in the student organi-zation Junior Diplomat Initiative. He received his Master’s Degree in Inter-national Politics and Diplomacy from the University of Economics, Prague.

[email protected] @Luk_Lukacovic

JIŘÍ BERANOffice Manager

Jiří works at the Aspen Institute Central Europe and is mainly responsible for office management, providing sup-port to the director as well as perform-ing organizational and logistical tasks related to the Institute’s events and activities. He is interested in current relations between the West, represent-ed mainly by NATO and the Europe-an Union and Russia. Jiří completed his studies of education in 2006 at Charles University and is now stud-ying International Territorial Stud-ies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University. He gained his experience working as a carer, teach-er and a customer services manager.

[email protected]

PROGRAM PARTNERS

PARTNERS

GENERAL PARTNER Notes

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